Carmel High School’s Teens for Life club presents movie to raise funds, awareness

Carmel High School’s Teens for Life club presents movie to raise funds, awareness

By Mark Ambrogi

Carmel High School’s Teens for Life club wants to share its message with fellow students and the public.

Teens for Life is showing the movie “Gimme Shelter” at 3:30 p.m. March 8 at CHS’s Studio Theatre. Admission is free and popcorn and drinks are $1. Freewill donations will be accepted. All proceeds will be donated to the O’Connor House, a non-profit organization that provides a home in Carmel for pregnant mothers. Representatives of The O’Connor House plan to give a short talk during intermission.

“This is a good way for us to reach out to our school and let them know who we are and also to the community,” said club co-vice president Sophia Tragesser a sophomore.

The movie, which stars Vanessa Hudgens, is a true story of young girl facing an unplanned pregnancy who flees an abusive mother.

At the urging of her father and stepmother, the girl visits an abortion clinic but decides she doesn’t want to go through with it. She goes to a home for pregnant women and gets a lot of encouragement from her peers, club co-president Mary Carmen Zakrajsek said.

“I think it’s important, because a lot of time people will say if people are in a bad situation or poor then abortion is the necessary thing to do,” said Zakrajsek, a junior. “It showing this girl who is the poorest of the poor and if she can do it, I think anybody can do it. It’s the story of someone who becomes pregnant at a young age and she is strong enough to carry the baby. I think that’s going to inspire other people as well.”

Tragesser agreed.

“This girl has the roughest background and has experienced very dramatic events, but when people enable her and encourage her, she realizes she can do it,” she said.